My 9 to 5 escape plan / wish
For me, learning about Early Retirement / Financial Independence was like the red pill in Matrix. Once you know about this possibility (and become “infected” by the idea), there is no way back.
When I look at my long term financial plan there are two milestones: Reaching 600k at the end of 2020 and reaching one million at the end of 2023. If I keep my side job then 600k should be enough to safely quit my day job. At one million everything is covered. But 2023 is almost 9 years away, even 2020 is far away. For my taste too far. I struggle to think about working 5 or 6 more years. It’s all so insignificant…
You work your but off on a stressful day and at the end of the day you ask yourself, “what have I achieved”? “What stays?” The answer is – nothing. In the grand scheme of things all is insignificant. After all those years there is only little to show for.
I have lots of ideas of things I would rather do, but the time between working, family and house is just spread too thin. At the moment it is all too much for me. So there is a strong wish to quit 9 to 5. I can’t say that I have a plan, but at least a vague idea. If I can generate 1,500 Euros a month (or maybe 15k a year) via some other venture I could at least cover our expenses (together with my side job and my wife’s salary). We could not save anything from our salaries, but we also would not have to touch our savings. All growth in networth would then come from my stock market (options) activities.
Of course, this slows down the path to true Financial Independence, but hey, my life would be almost the same as already retired. I asked my wife if should would also like to retire – no, she would like to continue to work. I assume this will change over time, if I’m truly retired and would enjoy the sweet things of life.
So, my next goal wouldn’t be retirement, it would be a lifestyle business. 15k a year – sounds like two months working as IT freelancer (maybe in the winter). Or having a side project netting 1.5k a month. Or both. 🙂
EurFI - European way to Financial Independence 
No More Waffles 11:51 on 2015-05-01 Permalink |
EurFI,
I’ve been thinking about this approach as well, like I recently mentioned in reply to one of your comments on my own blog. I’m still not sure what to think of it.
On the one hand it doesn’t make sense to work full-time now just to be able to quit working in the future, while on the other having to work until 65 doesn’t sound appealing at all, even though it’s just three months out of the year or something like that.
Food for thought…
Cheers,
NMW
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eurfi 13:23 on 2015-05-01 Permalink |
I think the crucial thing is to keep increasing the networth. As long as you can do that, you are on track (but at a slower pace of course).
And I do not intend to not earn any money – it is just not as steady as a salary income. I think about entrepreneurship – maybe the business works, maybe not.
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ambertreeleaves 20:46 on 2015-05-12 Permalink |
Interesting thoughts… They cross my mind as well. A first step of FI would be to convert my day job in a freelance day job, using the skills I already have. Once that is achieved, I could switch to an 80pct or half time doing that and using the other half to explore new jobs, to travel,…
I see some conditions to reach the freelance half time: Be debt free, have the kids out of the house or their full education cost covered, have enough net worth to cover at least half of our expenses using a SWR of 4pct
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eurfi 21:15 on 2015-05-12 Permalink
I was thinking about freelance as well. But I decided to do the full step and rather try to build my own business (together with investment income). I would do it as a fallback if nothing else works out.
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First steps of my 9 to 5 escape plan | EurFI - European way to Financial Independence 23:05 on 2015-05-26 Permalink |
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